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Dear Reader,
If you have a question this week, feel free to send an email. Karen's email (below) not only inspired me to talk about writing, but to let you know that this year's "Write a Dear Reader Contest" will begin on August 17th. Watch my column for the prizes and submission dates. It's going to be a lot of fun, you could win a surplus of books and your column will be published at the book clubs. So be sure to enter.
A Question from Karen...
"Good Morning Suzanne,
Thanks so much for your daily emails and for sharing your experiences with us. I love your writing style and I especially admire how you can motivate and inspire people through your writing. By reading your daily emails, I feel now inspired to improve my writing skills and hopefully become a good writer one day. My biggest challenge is to be able to organize my ideas and put them into writing. Could you give me some tips to improve my writing? Would you mind sharing with me how you learned and mastered this skill?"--Karen Aguilar
(Suzanne replies:)
Dear Karen,
When people ask me a question about writing I'm never quite sure where to begin, which is kind of amusing, because that's the best way to describe my writing style, too.
I never know where to begin and that scares me. I'm the kind of person who likes to think she's in control of a situation. I grew up living in a household that was out of control most of the time...well...that's a story for another day. But if I were sitting down to work on a column today, I would let my mind wander. When I thought about the household I grew up in, even if that's not what I wanted to share with readers, I would just keep typing and see what followed that thought. Maybe it's simply something I needed to get off my mind, in order for me to write. Or maybe talking about the kind of tension I grew up with is the topic I need to write about. But it's painful, I'm afraid to go there--'what would readers think?'
Every time I start to write anything, I feel like a brand new writer. I don't think most writers fear their craft like I do, but since I'm constantly searching for the good in something, maybe fear is what allows me to write in the first place. Maybe fear motivates me to try to figure things out. 'What's going on inside of Suzanne?' One of the greatest gifts I can give to somebody else is to share with them what's really in my heart. Talk about my fears and joys, when I succeed and when I feel like a failure, because if I'm feeling these things, for certain someone else out there is feeling the same way, too.
A friend of mine gave me some solid writing advice one day when I was having trouble getting started, "Suzanne, if you'd just get out of the way then you could write." And it's true.
When I try to analyze, sort and sift while I'm in the process of writing, it's Suzanne trying to be in charge. But I don't need to take charge--because "Suzanne knows what to write, if she'll just get out of the way."
Thanks for reading with me Karen. It's so good to know I'm reading with a friend like you.
My warmest regards,
Suzanne Beecher
Suzanne@DearReader.com
http://www.DearReader.com
AUTHORBUZZ: With so many new books out every week, we promise that there are five that deserve your attention: Eric Wilson, Haunt of Jackals; Denise Robbins, Killer Bunny Hill; Julie Kramer, Missing Mark; John Gilstrap, No Mercy; Christine Wells, Wicked Little Game. Go to: http://authorbuzz.com/dearreader
* This month's Penguin Classics book is The Stone Diaries by Carol Shields. To comment on the book and enter the Penguin Classics Drawing, go to: http://tinyurl.com/JulyClassics
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